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A Texas federal judge on Thursday denied a request by the court-appointed receiver of Stanford International Bank to overturn a jury decision keeping $88 million in cash in the hands of a cable and truck-racing magnate, who received it shortly before Stanford’s Ponzi scheme-related collapse.

Judge David C. Godbey said he had already ruled that a reasonable jury could have found Colorado billionaire Gary Magness accepted money from Stanford in good faith, and rejected receiver Ralph Janvey’s arguments that he committed multiple legal errors over the…

At first glance, the effort to recover money for victims of Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme looks a bit like Jarndyce and Jarndyce, the endless chancery court case satirized in Charles Dickens’ book, “Bleak House.” Stanford, you’ll recall, was convicted by a Houston jury in 2012 for swindling investors and sentenced to 110 years in prison.

Eight years into the case, with no end in sight, the receivership set up in Dallas federal court to unwind Stanford’s fraud has turned up only a small percentage of investors’ lost billions. Just as troubling, nearly half of what has been secured so far has gone to pay lawyers and accountants.

Law360, Dallas (February 10, 2015, 8:31 PM ET) — The receiver for the R. Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme on Tuesday told jurors a former U.S. diplomat traveled the world for years on Stanford’s behalf, trading on his good reputation to open doors that broadened the fraud, during the trial’s second day of testimony.

Receiver Ralph Janvey is seeking the return of about $1.1 million paid to former U.S. ambassador to Ecuador Peter Romero, who served on Stanford’s International Advisory Board. On the stand, Janvey aimed to shred Romero’s main defense: that he was an outside…

R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier convicted last year of leading an investment fraud scheme, was ordered to disgorge more than $6.7 billion by the judge in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge David Godbey in Dallas issued the order yesterday against Stanford, his Stanford Group Co. and the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd.

The order may clear the way for Godbey to grant a court-appointed receiver’s request to make an interim $55 million payout to investors who lost money after buying certificates of deposit issued by the Stanford Bank.

“The fraud perpetrated was obviously egregious, was done with a high degree of scienter, caused billions in losses and occurred over the course of a decade,” Godbey said, using the legal term to describe the mental state of intent to deceive.

A federal jury in Houston convicted Stanford of lying to investors about how their money was being handled. “The truth is that he flushed it away,” Justice Department lawyer William Stellmach told jurors in his closing arguments at the March 2012 trial. “He told depositors he was using their money in one way and the truth was completely different.”

Stanford, 63, was sentenced to 110 years in prison. Maintaining his innocence, he has appealed the verdict.

Parallel Judgment

Godbey referred to the jury’s guilty finding in granting the SEC’s request he render a parallel judgment in their case filed in February 2009, four months before the financier was indicted. The judge also cited the August 2009 guilty plea by Stanford Group Chief Financial Officer James Davis.

“The court finds that $5.9 billion is a reasonable approximation of the gains connected to Stanford’s fraud,”Godbey said of the sum he would order disgorged. He then added more than $861 million in interest for a total of $6.76 billion Davis too is jointly liable.

Finally the judge imposed a $5.9 billion penalty on Stanford and a $5 million assessment against Davis, who received a five-year prison sentence.

The court-appointed receiver, Ralph Janvey, asked Godbey this month for permission to begin repaying some of the losses incurred by the more than 17,000 claimants. At an April 11 hearing, the judge told Janvey’s lawyer, Kevin Sadler, he was concerned about doing so before a final order had been entered against Stanford.

The SEC case is Securities and Exchange Commission v. Stanford International Bank, 09-cv-00298, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas). The criminal case is U.S. v. Stanford, 09-cr-00342, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in the Chicago federal courthouse at aharris16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net

Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford’s Antiguan liquidators have agreed to cooperate with his U.S. receiver and federal prosecutors to jointly control the convicted financier’s remaining assets, the liquidators said.

The receiver and liquidators have battled for control of Stanford’s assets since U.S. regulators seized his companies in February 2009.

The agreement announced Thursday by liquidators Hugh Dickson and Marcus Wide, and independently confirmed by Kevin Sadler, a lawyer for the court-appointed U.S. receiver, clears one of the last obstacles to compensating victims of Stanford’s investment scheme.

The parties “reached an agreement in principle that, if finalized and approved by the relevant authorities,” would result in coordination of victim claims, increased information sharing and cooperation on asset recovery, Wide and Dickson said in an e-mailed statement.

An estimated 20,000 investors were defrauded of more than $7 billion through a Ponzi scheme that Stanford created around bogus certificates of deposit sold by Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd.

Stanford, 63, was convicted in March of leading the fraud and stealing more than $2 billion to finance a lavish lifestyle and an array of money-losing ventures, ranging from Caribbean resort developments to cricket tournaments.

He is serving a 110-year sentence in a federal prison in Florida as he appeals his conviction and sentence.

Ralph Janvey was appointed receiver by a federal judge in Dallas to marshal Stanford’s assets and wind down his companies in the U.S. and abroad. London-based Wide and Dickson were appointed by an Antiguan court to do the same.

“This is a multistep process that will play out over the next several weeks, which is definitely under way,” Sadler said. “We’re not leaving some disputes to be resolved later.”

The Justice Department obtained an administrative freeze on more than $300 million in overseas accounts.

The accord also represents “a resolution of pending disputes concerning funds now frozen in the U.K., Canada and Switzerland, and a release of funds for distribution to Stanford’s investor victims,” the liquidators said.

Sadler, Janvey’s lead lawyer, confirmed in an e-mail that the cooperation accord had been reached but didn’t disclose details.